


Under the Bed

by Himring



Series: Gloom, Doom and Maedhros [108]
Category: TOLKIEN J. R. R. - Works & Related Fandoms, The Silmarillion and other histories of Middle-Earth - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Childhood, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Siblings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-01
Updated: 2019-07-01
Packaged: 2020-05-31 12:44:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 495
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19426261
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Himring/pseuds/Himring
Summary: An early incident foreshadows the quarrels that will eventually lead to Nerdanel leaving Feanor.Young Maedhros and Maglor sense the seriousness of the situation and seek comfort in each others' company.





	1. Crisis

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Rina Blackcat](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=Rina+Blackcat).



> Quenya names used: Feanaro = Feanor; Maitimo = Maedhros; Kano = Maglor (nickname based on his father name Kanafinwe)

What Nerdanel said:

_Before I was your wife, Feanaro, I was Mahtan’s daughter and so one of the Aulendili. I regret that we do not agree on these matters. But you will not attempt again to ‘correct’ what I say about Aule to my sons. In this you cannot command me._

Maitimo had never heard his mother’s voice sound so strained, and so coldly angry at the same time.

Going by the look on his father's face, neither had Feanaro.


	2. Seeking Safety

‘Kano? Where are you? Kano!’

Maitimo couldn’t see his little brother anywhere and he had been all over the house, searching for him. Finally, it dawned on him that he was going about it the wrong way. He stood still and listened hard. After a while he heard the sound of humming, quite a small sound and a soft one. Moving quietly and cautiously, he managed to follow where it led him. To his surprise, it led him along the corridor to his own room, to his own bed.

‘Kano?’ he asked, kneeling down on the wooden floor and trying to peer under the heavy bedspread. ‘Are you under there?’

The humming—repetitive notes, almost a little tune, but not quite—stopped for a moment and then resumed.

Maitimo lowered himself onto his belly and crawled and wriggled. It was a bit of a tight fit for someone of his size, but finally he had squeezed almost his entire length underneath the bedstead and in the dim light he could see Kano more clearly. He was curled up in a corner, humming to himself.

‘What are you doing there, Kano?’ Maitimo asked.

Kano stopped humming for a moment.

‘Hiding,’ he said, as if that should have been obvious.

Maitimo almost asked: ‘Why?’

But he stopped himself. It was, he realized, a stupid question. He had been tempted to ask it only because he had been pretending so hard that everything was all right. But it wasn’t all right, no matter how hard he tried to pretend, and Kano wasn’t stupid, Kano knew, and Kano was frightened, too.

‘All right,’ said Maitimo, after thinking about it for a bit. Trying to pull Kano out, or even to persuade him to come out himself before he wanted to, would be somehow dishonest, he felt, almost treacherous, but he didn’t want to leave him alone down here either, thinking sad and fearful thoughts on his own. ‘Shall we hide out for a bit together, then?’

He wriggled a little farther in, tucking his feet in under the bedspread as well.

The suggestion seemed rather silly, but apparently it actually made sense to Kano. He crawled over to Maitimo and started humming into his neck. Maitimo felt the notes buzzing against his skin. The space under the bed immediately felt less dusty and oppressive.

They could wait down here together, just a little bit, in a safer space, until they both felt brave enough to face the world again.

**Author's Note:**

> In my story "Something Un-Feanorian" there is a line by Elrond that goes like this: "For a moment, I envision Fingon and myself side by side on our knees, trying to coax Maedhros out from under the bed, while Fingon throws me reproachful glances". You have to read the context to really make sense of this, I'm afraid, but the point is that Maedhros is not, in fact, hiding under the bed.  
> Rina Blackcat had asked me for a scene in which Maedhros does hide under the bed or at least considers doing so. I wrote the scene itself a while ago, but didn't feel like explaining what had triggered the brothers' anxiety at the time. As you see, I still have only just sketched in the scene that went before, but sufficiently to make their anxiety comprehensible, I hope.  
> I don't see Feanor, at this time, as being so very suspicious and resentful of the Valar as he later became, but he still has a distinctly different attitude to them from Nerdanel's (partly because of their treatment of Miriel's case). At this stage, he can still be made to realize he has overstepped a boundary of hers.


End file.
